Posted on 02/22/2006 2:57:57 AM PST by snowsislander
Introduction
Good morning Mr. Chairman and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. It is a pleasure to be here today to discuss the Coast Guard's role in securing our ports in order to facilitate the safe and efficient flow of commerce. On September 10th, 2001, our primary maritime focus was on the safe and efficient use of America's waterways. However, the events of 9/11 changed our focus to security. Since then, we have made great progress in securing America's waterways without impeding commerce. The men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security remain committed to improving maritime homeland security each and every day through continued interagency cooperation and assistance from our partners at the local, state, and international levels as well as maritime industry stakeholders.
Reducing Maritime Risk
The Coast Guard's overarching security goal is to prevent the exploitation of, or terrorist attacks within, the U.S. maritime domain. Doing so requires a threat-based, risk-managed approach to identify and intercept threats well before they reach U.S. shores. The Coast Guard accomplishes this by conducting layered, multi-agency security operations nationwide; while strengthening the security posture and reducing the vulnerability of our ports, with the initial focus being our militarily and economically strategic ports. As we seek to reduce maritime risk, we continually strive to balance each of the Coast Guard's mission requirements to ensure minimal degradation in service to the American public. Looking at their accomplishments, it is clear that Coast Guard men and women continue to rise to the challenge and deliver tangible and important results across both homeland security and non-homeland security missions.
Today's global maritime safety and security environment requires a new level of operations specifically directed against terrorism without degrading other critical maritime safety missions. Most importantly, the Coast Guard must exercise its full suite of authorities, capabilities, competencies and partnerships to mitigate maritime security risks in the post-9/11 world.
In terms of threat, vulnerability, and consequence, there are few more valuable and vulnerable targets than the U.S. maritime transportation system.
Lingering and new maritime safety and security gaps continually present themselves and it is these risks we will continually work to reduce. The Coast Guard guides its efforts by implementing policies, seeking resources, and deploying capabilities through the lens of our maritime security strategy.
Considering the vast economic utility of our ports, waterways, and coastal approaches, it is clear that a terrorist incident against our marine transportation system would have a disastrous impact on global shipping, international trade, and the world economy, in addition to the strategic military value of many ports and waterways.
The elements of the Coast Guard's Maritime Strategy for Homeland Security are in direct alignment with the DHS' strategic goals of Awareness, Prevention, Protection, Response and Recovery. These elements serve as guiding pillars in our efforts to reduce America's vulnerabilities to terrorism by enhancing our ability to prevent terrorist attacks and limit the damage to our nation's ports, coastal infrastructure and population centers in the event a terrorist attack occurs. A brief overview of the core elements of that strategy with particular emphasis on creation and management of a robust security regime is presented here in the following paragraphs.
Enhance Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA).
First, we seek to increase our awareness and knowledge of what is happening in the maritime arena, not just here in American waters, but globally. We need to know which vessels are in operation, the names of the crews and passengers, and the ship's cargo, especially those inbound for U.S. ports. Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) is critical to separate the law-abiding sailor from the anomalous threat.
The core of our MDA efforts revolve around the development and employment of accurate information, intelligence, and targeting of vessels, cargo, crews and passengers and extending this well beyond our traditional maritime boundaries. All DHS components are working to provide a layered defense through collaborative efforts with our interagency and international partners to counter and manage security risks long before they reach a U.S. port.
Create and Oversee Maritime Security Regime.
Second, to help prevent terrorist attacks we have developed and continue to improve an effective maritime security regime both domestically and internationally. This element of our strategy focuses on our domestic and international efforts and includes initiatives related to MTSA enforcement, International Maritime Organization regulations such as the ISPS Code, as well as improving supply chain security and identity security processes.
Before 9/11 we had no formal international or domestic maritime security regime for ports, port facilities, and ships with the exception of cruise ships. Partnering with domestic and international stakeholders, we now have both a comprehensive domestic security regime and an international security convention in place. Both have been in force since July 1, 2004. In executing the requirements of the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) and the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) code, the Coast Guard has:
Aside from the statistics, MTSA and ISPS are truly landmark achievements within the maritime industry. Through a variety of measures, or layers, of regulatory requirements, these two regimes complement each other and have gone far to reduce vulnerabilities within the global maritime transportations system, the general framework of which includes:
Since Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has the lead role in maritime cargo security, the Coast Guard has worked in concert with CBP to align respective agency roles and responsibilities regarding international trade. When a cargo is moved on the waterborne leg of the trade route, the Coast Guard has oversight of the cargo's care and carriage on the vessels and within the port facility. The Coast Guard also oversees the training and identity verification of the people who are moving the cargo. CBP has authority over the cargo contents and container standards. Using the information provided through the Coast Guard's 96-hour notice of arrival rule and CBP's 24-hour cargo loading rule, we can act to control vessels, and thus their cargoes, that pose an unacceptable risk to our ports. With Coast Guard officers posted at CBP's National Targeting Center, we continuously improve agency coordination and our collective ability to quickly take appropriate action when notified of a cargo of interest. As a further improvement, the trade community can file required passenger and crew information via an electronic notice of arrival and departure system. This streamlines the process for industry and improves our ability to apply targeting and selectivity methods.
The Coast Guard has worked hard to align all of our regulatory and policy development efforts with CBP and TSA. We meet regularly to discuss policy, we participate on inter-agency regulation development teams, and we sit on the Operation Safe Commerce Executive Steering Committee. Between DHS, CBP, and the Coast Guard, we coordinate the work of our various Federal Advisory Committees so that we all understand the trade community's concerns and priorities. Now that MTSA and the ISPS Code are fully implemented, we are monitoring compliance and carefully noting issues for future improvements to the regulatory framework.
Looking at specific cargo-related initiatives, the Coast Guard fully supports the Container Security Initiative and the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. We support CBP's pending regulation on mechanical seals for inbound cargo containers. We look forward to the results of Operation Safe Commerce, which will highlight technologies and business practices that will bring improved, layered security throughout the supply chain. We also agree with CBP's view that international compliance and the establishment of international standards are needed to help gain global compliance. In this way, the International Standards Organization and the International Maritime Organization have achieved great success in institutionalizing both safety and security standards, many times incorporating industry standards by reference. A multilateral approach provides a more efficient and effective security regime. Compliance with a common, acceptable standard is checked by all our trading partners, not just the U.S. The evidence of success can be directly measured in the level of compliance. A prime example is the success of the ISPS Code implementation evidenced by the 98% compliance rate achieved by foreign vessels arriving in U.S. ports.
Increase Operational Presence. Third, we seek to better protect critical maritime infrastructure and improve our ability to respond to suspect activities by increasing our operational presence in ports, coastal zones and beyond,--to implement a layered security posture, a defense-in-depth. Our collective efforts to increase operational presence in ports and coastal zones focus not only on adding more people, boats and ships to our force structures, but making the employment of those resources more effective through the application of technology, information sharing, and intelligence support.
Improve Response and Recovery Posture. Finally, we are improving our ability to respond to and aid in recovery if there were an actual terrorist attack. Understanding the challenge of defending 26,000 miles of navigable waterways and 361 ports against every conceivable threat at every possible time, we are also aggressively working to improve our response capabilities and readiness. While many of the increases in MDA and operational presence augment our collective response and recovery posture, we must also incorporate initiatives that will increase our ability to adequately manage operations and coordinate resources during maritime threat response or recovery operations.
The Coast Guard is implementing the new National Response Plan across all operations. The Incident Command System is our mandated crisis management system, and we have years of practical experience in its use. At the local level, each port is ready with port-specific and even sub-area specific, response plans. All law enforcement agencies, public service providers, and port stakeholders have participated in the plan development process.
The Coast Guard has confidence that if a maritime transportation security incident (TSI) should occur in one of our ports, the local responders (Coast Guard Sector Commander or Captain of the Port, other federal agencies, state and local authorities, and partners in industry) will immediately react with mitigation, response, and recovery activities in that port and region. At the same time, we are continuing to refine tools and analysis to aid senior leadership in their ability to rapidly respond to a crisis, minimize damage, and aid in recovery operations.
After experiencing the most horrific act of terrorism on U.S. soil on 9-11, all sectors of the maritime community rallied together to strengthen the security of the maritime transportation system. The tremendous successes in this endeavor is due, in large part, to the cooperation by federal, state, and local government and industry working together as partners. Much work remains to be done to reduce America's vulnerabilities to terrorism and other maritime security threats but with the continued support of the Congress and Administration, I know that we will succeed in delivering the robust maritime safety and security America expects and deserves well into the 21st Century. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Again, apologies for my reformatting of these pdf documents. I believe that I managed to include all material, since this had neither foonotes nor was it formatted multicolumnar.
Geeeeeeeeeeee! I feel better already!
Good find. Notice that with all the words, not much was said? I love when they do that. Why wasn't the issue of turning over the ports to a country that supports terrorism, addressed in that whole rambling mess?
Actually, the document predates this discussion of the UAE taking over port operations.
What I think is most significant is its discussion of how vital owners and operators are in the security structure, as does this document.
This should make you feel even more warm and fuzzy -
Bush's nominee for head of Maritime Administration was confirmed two weeks ago. Who is it, you ask? It's DWP's head honcho, David Sanborn, who's duties include overseeing the Maritime Security Program, the Ready Reserve Force, and Title XI shipbuilding loan and mortgage program.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.